Tag: Ivica Da?i?

On the left boot’s heel was the flag of Switzerland. On the right, the flag of Kosovo. So after Shaqiri broke free of Serbia’s offside trap in the final minutes of the game and slid the ball with his left boot, his Swiss boot, under the onrushing Serbia goalkeeper, Vladimir Stojkovic, he peeled away and made a two-handed eagle gesture with his fingers. It is a nationalistic sign that many with ethnic Albanian roots make — Granit Xhaka made it after he scored Switzerland’s first goal earlier in the second half — to mimic the black eagle in Albania’s flag. “If he loves Kosovo that much and never misses a chance to flaunt the flag, why did he refuse a chance to play for their team?” the Serbia striker Aleksandar Mitrovic said when asked about Shaqiri’s boots. “As I said a hundred times, let me say it for the 101st time,” Serbia’s Mladen Krstajic said before the game, “I am not into politics.” Yet politics was never far away on Friday, and Kosovo — even as it was not playing — remains a continuing issue. The punishment led the Serbian football federation to issue a statement urging fans attending the “high-risk game” on Friday not to display political banners. “We do have a lot of immigrants in our team, but Shaqiri and Xhaka are both Swiss and from Kosovo,” the Swiss supporter Andreas Podolak said. It was Shaqiri, who was booed every time his face appeared on the stadium’s video screen and every time he touched the ball. As the game ended, heavy rain began to fall, and Shaqiri gave a thumbs up to Serbian fans as he left the field.